day 15 ... Living from Love

the title would make you wonder... do we not live from love.
maybe not as consciously and whole-heartedly as we could every day.
maybe some days you want a break from living from love.
not me.

I learnt this year it's okay for me to feel the darker feelings and that they actually allow you to live more from love when you're not resisting them....  cause at the heart of the matter it is all about love.

"No matter what has happened, you have an infinite capacity for love."
—David Simon

Today we begin our final week of Free to Love.  If you have been with us from day one, congratulations! If you began yesterday, or today, congratulations! 

As Lao Tzu said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

You have taken the step out of the physical realm of life's ups and downs, and have stepped into the quantum reality of your true Self, your spirit.

We will continue this week by exploring how to choose love in every moment. When love is our goal, we find it everywhere—from the people in our lives to the events of each day. In the place of love, all is well all the time.

Meditation is a powerful way to reconnect with the most loving part of our being, our essential Self. Your willingness to practice meditation daily is a gesture of love—love for yourself, and love for all that is. You have made a great choice. Let us continue on our journey into the exquisite miracle that is love.

Centering Thought for Today:
"As I notice love all around me, I look for more ways to love."

day 14 ... Healing the Heart

today I am with Maria, Shaun and baby Livi -- so I am surrounded by love and by there people that although I've always known they love me... I am experiencing more and more each day just how much they love me.  And I can tell you it's more than 100% returned by me.

two weeks of ongoing meditation... I know I'm creating a life long rhythm and I'm grateful.

I'd like to incorporate more into the middle of my day... morning and night are great and there are times throughout the day where I am more and more recognizing and saying to myself "this would be a great moment to stop and meditate ... and yet I haven't embraced that yet" ... adding that to my game this week.

Day 14 .. Healing the Heart

Centering Thought for Today:
"I am open and ready to give and receive more love than ever before."

From Chopra Center... Congratulations! You've kept your commitment to meditate daily for two weeks. You have dedicated yourself to extend peace to the world by experiencing peace within yourself.

During the first week we delved into the past, brought up long held memories one last time, and let go of that which no longer serves us. In the second week we explored the qualities of the heart, and how this magnificent organ sends us messages to lift us higher on the spiritual plane. Now is the time to move forward with a lighter heart, a freed mind, and a new view of love and loving.

You are ready to open your heart wide to love. This week we will explore many different aspects of love, from loving ourselves and expanding that love to encompass the world. According to Deepak Chopra, "A single point in the heart can expand to heal the whole world." 

"Love takes us out of the mundane

 and the predictable into the 

magical and miraculous...

Love expands our sense of self, 

which, once expanded, 

never returns to its original state."
—David Simon

day 13 ... Your Joyful Heart

oh joy !

Centering Thought for Today:
"A happy heart is a healthy heart."

Welcome to Day 13 - Your Joyful Heart

Today's meditation will focus on the benefits of keeping joy in your heart and how to maintain a joyful state, even when life isn't exactly going as we wish. When your heart is happy, the chemicals it produces are life enhancing. Happiness and joy result from total acceptance of living in the present moment. How do you keep your heart happy? By living in and from love. 

"We are born to be happy, to be abundantly supplied with every good thing, 

to have fun in living, 

to consciously unite with the Divine Power that is around us

 and within us, and to grow and expand forever."
—Ernest Holmes

Love yourself; love your family; love the world. You will be rewarded with more joy than you have ever imagined or experienced. Joy is the ultimate expression of blissful enlightenment. The art of joyful living is captured well in the following quote by Friedrich Nietsche: 

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. 

And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh." 

Friedrich Nietsche

day 12 ... Your Grateful Heart

I am grateful, all the time. I'd like to make a habit of it each morning and night ....
going to write in a journal each night was I was grateful for

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter transcendent moments of awe

 that change forever how we experience life and the world."
—John Milton

List now 10 things you are grateful for... let's start now

1. the ability to see
2. photography - beautiful images
3. moments in movies that make me smile or laugh
4. a place I can call home
5. friends who stand by me
6. my morning cup of tea
7. shaun for all he's doing for me to produce this corp video
8. maria for all our friendship all the way back to the beginning for not letting me push her away when I got hurt
9. my grama - cause all my memories with her are happy
10. livi whose brought a tremendous amount of love into my life and touched my heart

that's just a start ....  I could go on forever and I will xo

Welcome to Day 12 - Your Grateful Heart

Today's meditation will focus on gratitude, called the prayer of affluence, because gratitude for what we have draws more abundance to us. How many times a day do we give thanks—to the Universe, to our friends and family, or to people we encounter each day? We have so many things in our life to be grateful for. Beyond any material possessions, health is a gift, a child's smile is a gift, watching the sun rise and set is a gift, waking up in the morning is the ultimate gift of another day of life.

To live in a state of gratitude, we have to learn to expand our awareness of the gifts we have been given, the bounty the unlimited Universe has handed to us for simply being. Meditation is the ultimate path to expanded awareness. Deepak Chopra writes, "The overall purpose of meditation is...learning to relate to awareness itself, the purest level of experience."

Centering Thought for Today:
"I am grateful for everything in my life, knowing all is in perfect, divine order."

day 11 ... Your Romantic Heart

today's morning meditation was beautiful....

Deepak has us explore the path to love and the distinction being falling in love from being in love...  love from falling in love, the entrance point to loves eternal journey, the stages for us to explore from attraction, infatuated, courtship, intimacy -each with it's own special spiritual experience.

Centering Thought for Today:
"Today I am willing to surrender into the deepest levels of romantic, spiritual love."

"... love rooted in the physical plane ... change is enviable"

"... the unchangeable bliss of Pure love happens when we are willing to go deeper"

"... in the depths of our souls the ultimate rewards of ecstasy resides"

"... the second stage of love is surrender.... falling in love is over, being in love begins and being is not a physical state, it's a state of the soul"

"... this state involved surrendering.... surrendering the needs of ego to needs of spirit - the need to evolve and grow"

"... excitement, lust, enchantment are turned into compassion, trust, and devotion"

"... what creates a state of romance is to see yourself as loveable"

"... we are in relationships to serve each other and to serve the world"

"... what can I contribute to this relationship to make it sweeter"

"... to move to the final stage, which is ecstasy, is move towards more harmony, more sweetness, more compassion and more trust"

"... ecstasy is the final stage of intimacy with yourself"

"... love changes with the passage of time, it never diminishes, it's always present in it's fullness"

"It is your birthright to live a life abundant in love. 

Make the commitment today to open your heart and let your love flow."
—David Simon

day 10 ... Your Giving Heart

almost midnight and time for my nightly meditation which is almost a morning one
enjoy the images as I love visuals to accompany our mediation

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can

 sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Centering Thought for Today:
"Today and every day I find simple ways to give to everyone I meet."

Welcome to Day 10 - Your Giving Heart

In today's meditation we will focus on how a giving heart brings abundant benefits to your life. Some charities advertise, "Give 'til it hurts." These are strange words, since there is almost nothing that feels as good as giving. And you cannot give without receiving some reward. Offer a hug to someone and feel the sensations in your heart when they reach out to hug you back. Give a cookie to your child and bask in the smile that reaches across his face. Allow someone to move in front of you at the checkout line in the grocery store, acknowledge the other person's smile, and notice how good you feel.

If you wake up every morning feeling less than exceedingly grateful and utterly in love with life, find a way to give of yourself today: a smile, a hug, a compliment, a flower. Don't give 'til it hurts; give 'til it feels fantastic! Deepak Chopra writes, "Total commitment to giving makes receiving automatic—it is the other half of a natural cycle."

day 9 ... Your Intuitive Heart

day 9 ... my intuitive heart


I've been meditating each morning and night. I'm noticing I love the process of mediation when waking however my mind is eager to become engaged with the activities of the day and my thoughts compete with the necessary silence. Often I have to repeat the meditation as it takes the first attempt to gain control. At night my mind is willing to give over to my heart and be quiet. Today I did not meditate in the morning. My heart was heavy all day and the pressure in my chest appeared again. Ah yes, I hear you my friend. So tonight's meditation and a new day for meditation in the morning.

Deep in the heart every mystery of spirit is hidden.  Only from soul can soul draw its secrets,  Not from any page or eloquent speech.  The heart of the matter is Soul, nothing else

Welcome to Day 9 - Your Intuitive Heart

In today's meditation we will discover the powerful intuitive capacity of the heart. Intuition is defined as "direct perception of truth or fact, independent of any reasoning process." David Simon wrote in Free to Love, Free to Heal, "In the West, awareness, intelligence and discrimination have been localized in the brain, but in Eastern thought there is such a thing as heart intelligence. This is the recognition of an inherent intelligence that can be accessed through attention to sensations in the physiology."

In our highly technological world, we often use our minds to solve problems. It is good to develop intellectual prowess; however, there are some things in life that are "independent of any reasoning process." This is where you can depend on your heart to lead you—from love, to love.

As we explore what it means to pay attention to our inner knowing through our heart centers, reflect on the ancient wisdom of the masters like Aristotle who understood, "Intuition is the source of all scientific knowledge." 

"More and more I learn to trust the intuition of my heart."

Had my last of 11 EFT (energy freedom treatments aka tapping) tonight.  www.eftshifts.com
Did most of the tapping on myself and create the last of my fundamental shifts. Look out world, I'm back! Let my heart lead the way and may the head follow. Not the other way around anymore.

"Whenever a choice needs to be made in any area of life, your body provides a message
 of either comfort or discomfort, and for most of us the message is felt in the heart."
—David Simon

day 8 ... Your Heart Center

another beautiful meditation .... yuuumm, yuuumm, yuuumm

"The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love

 and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, 

you will discover that for you the world is transformed."
—Jiddu Krishnamurti

Welcome to Day 8 - Your Heart Center

Welcome to the second week of the challenge! Today we will begin our journey of "Healing the Heart," by exploring how your entire life stems from the core of your being—your heart center. This week we will look closely at the different qualities of the heart beginning with how intuition is born there, moving on to its innate characteristics of givingness and gratitude. We will then discover how we can embrace joy and romance by inviting these elements into our hearts, and subsequently, into our lives.

With an open mind and an open heart, we can live each day from the level of spirit. Deepak Chopra reminds us, "There is a center in the body where love and spirit are joined, and that center is the heart." Let us remember that spirit and heart connectedness as we explore what it means to love wholly and completely, with unbounded enthusiasm for life.

Centering Thought for Today:
"My heart center is open and receptive to love."

day 7 ... Freedom to Feel Again

I loved yesterday's guided meditation... and today this was my favourite one so far.  Beautifully guided mediation by Deepak Chopra himself. Wow does he has an awesome voice. At first all I kept hearing was the Buddha Bar song Desire that Deepak and Demi Moore narrated. Sexy. http://youtu.be/pc8tO52EVsk

Then I got focused and was carried away .... I choose love. I choose love. I choose love.

"Like the tiny spark of fire that consumes a forest, the spark of love 

is all you need to experience love in its full power and glory, 

in all its aspects, earthly and divine."
—Deepak Chopra

From today's email.... we're onto Week 2 and the theme of listening and leading from your heart which has been my mantra for the past few months. It had to be as my heart decided to get MY ATTENTION for the past few months with irregular heart beats. At first skipping every fourth beat, eventually relaxing to skipping every twelfth beat and then more odd sensation of my whole chest vibrating like a drum and other times feelings of someone putting pressure on my chest for it was harder to breathe. Now it's back to a normal rhythm 95% of the time and so it doesn't feel the need to throw a tantrum to get my attention--- I listen to it often. It guides me. I share this because I believe my heart had been speaking to me for a very long time and I drowned out the sound, just like I do the sound of the refrigerator humming.... so it needed to be a little more dramatic to get my attention. Like I think my refrigerator would too. Just the consequences are quite different. I think many of us are like this with our own body. So I invite you to take more time in your day to quiet all else around you and listen, just listen and pay attention to your bodies voice. I bet we'd all be healthier and happier for it. I know I am. I am back to the essence of me.

Centering Thought for Today:

"Today I commit to giving and receiving love in its full power and glory."

picture courtesy of Kirstie, my dear friend in Maui -- a love and a light to this world. I borrowed from her facebook xoxo

day 6 ... Rituals of Release

Her voice guides us... "today is the day we're going to forgive, to let go and to free ourselves to accept the blissful, excitement of the future..." she guides us to our sacred place - mine is always the same and incorporates all the usual places suggested - a meadow, leaning against a tree, on top of a mountain, looking out over an ocean. I always want to have it all.

Rituals comfort us because they are familiar and easily repeatable. Many rituals are used to symbolize ancient practices of purification... often water or fire are used in these rituals. Sometimes earth or wind.

Over the past few months I crave water, being by water, immersed in water, gazing out over it....  one gypsy I met along my path said I may have too much heat in my heart and I need to cool it. I am a fire sign, the Sagittarius and seek the heat of life often.

... it's been time to cool and calm my heart through rituals with water.

Centering Thought for Today:
"I am pure existence, pure consciousness, pure love."

And then she guides us on top of cloud we forgive, let go and release...

"Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now; 

and if the past can not prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?"
—Eckhart Tolle

David Simon instructed, "The human mind is adept at ignoring emotional pain until it builds up to the point where it can no longer be ignored." Today gives you the gift of healing and letting go through the ritual of release. Trust that in this ritual you will be surrounded by light and love, knowing that the intention of this healing is to lift you up and allow you to soar. 

day 5 ... Freedom to Heal

From Chopra Center .... In today's meditation we will see how healing begins once the memories are brought into the light. Our message for today is to discover that whatever we felt we missed in childhood can become our greatest strength. If we spent a lot of time alone as a child, we learned how to be independent. Those of us who were not able to spend long periods of quality time with our parents or caregivers learned how important it is to be present, and to cherish every moment with loved ones. We can use the past as our teacher. Today is the day we begin to embrace the lessons we've learned as we bring memories into the light for healing. The brightest light exists in the silence of meditation and is the clearest path we can take. As Deepak Chopra writes, "A path is a way to open your Self to spirit...to love." Allow yourself to begin healing through the transformational experience of meditation.  I will share more about this image and how it surfaced for me recently in a EFT healing session.... Centering Thought for Today: me as a princess "Love is what I am, what I give, and what I receive."

day 4 ... Freedom From Old Tapes

what to write about old tapes? well talk about an old tape.... a cassette tape. I still have some of these in my garage with my favourite tunes from high school. So that does date me just a little. I like relating to today's mediation theme like old cassette tapes because listening to old tapes of your view of yourself from the past is as comical as listening to old cassette tapes. At least the cassette tapes have some good music on them.

Free yourself up. It's as simple as that. Be in the present.

"You have the capacity to change the plotline of your life, even if you've been acting from the 

same script since before you can remember."
—David Simon

And write your happily ever after, every day, each day... and make it the best ending you can think of for the day. And then tomorrow write another new happily ever after. And make it all about love.

"I am loved, lovable and loving."

day 3... Freedom to Forgive

I once heard the most beautiful and poignant saying about forgiveness... forgiveness is the scent that the violet leave on the heal of the foot that crushed it.

"I forgive; I release; I let go of anything and anyone that keeps me from my highest good."

This week and this day even more emphasizes that part of the statement that it's your FREEDOM to forgive .... not you must do, will to, have to, chose to.... it's your freedom to forgive.

"Life is too short to carry the burden of a heavy heart. It does not serve you or anyone else. 
Free yourself through the power of forgiveness and compassion."
- David Simon

Then there's the saying to forgive and not forget. Or is it to forgive and forget. Oh I forget and I forgive.

day 2 ... the past is over; I live blissfully loving in the present

I wake up with the will and want to meditate 

.... okay really it was first the cute doggy I'm babysitting for the night that initially wakes me up somewhere around 6:30a and beaconing to come onto my bed. Since we both want just a few more moments of rest I invite her to come on up. I'm a morning person and never mind, usually, getting up early. I just do believe that it's best if it's in a natural way. They say it's healthier for the body to not be shocked into being woken up and I once saw this natural light pillow someone had designed ... oh let me look that up. 

A-ha the glo-Pillow from a talented lad in Ireland. Oh just another reason to make my Ireland, Iceland, Italy trip one day. check it out http://www.embryo.ie/glo/index.html

Centering Thought for Today:

"The past is over; I live blissfully loving in the present."

I'm back in the present, smile. I find with each meditation, with each breath, with each moment you connect with your body and it is evident that we are only in this moment. Your body is the best indication of being in the present, this is your vessel, your vehicle. What does it need for fuel, how far will it get you today, have you been stepping on the gas, or been parked for too long and needing a jump start. Are you revving the RPM's past their capacity and tuning out the sound of the vehicle with the radio. Your body is always in the present moment. It's only your thoughts that are not and though thought gives us access to something beyond to new places, dimensions, new places... remember to pay attention to the body's wishes.

Just be in your body. Feel how it operates, how the breath breathes life into the organs, the blood, through oxygen. Be in a moment and listen, look, feel, expand. What do you hear right now? It is a strategy that we tune out most of the sounds around us however do you know we can hear likely one hundred things. Like right now the sound of the curtain blow, a dog barking far off, birds chirping, my fridge humming, oh the sound of my fingers typing on the keyboard... hhhmmm. Inviting all this new awareness in, where ever you are, you can experience so much more about the present moment.

At the end of my mediation I saw silhouettes moving in deep indigo satin colour. 

By a lake. It was beautiful.

"Unless you loosen the hold that your past has on you, your future will unfold in much the same way . . . it is time to begin writing a new script that accurately reflects the beautiful, powerful, and worthy being you are."
- David Simon

day 1 ... through the eyes of love

Day 1... through the eyes of love

the email arrives at 12:12am ... which is interesting because I finished writing my blog post yesterday at 12:12pm. The mediation is yet to begin as we have our steaming youtube mediation session with Deepak Chopra live at 10:30a PST which I will join today. I'll choose to incorporate the online videos at times that suit me throughout the weeks however starting collectively with all the participants online will be powerful.

Have you ever declared something, commit to something, set a goal, intention and then powerful tools and support show up immediately. I just created to my coach that my next few weeks will be about discipline with health, physical and mental, and some organizing of financial health for 2013 taxes. Promised myself I would do throughout the year, not just year end... oops we're half way through 2012. And this meditation challenge was shared with me only 2 days later by two of my bff's (a couple now) Maria & Shaun. We all start today. Thank you for sending this my way.

Part of the communication today from Chopra Center 21-Day Mediation Challenge™

We have divided our Free to Love challenge into three themes. The first week will focus on "Your Pathway to Freedom," letting go of anything in the past that no longer serves us. Our second week is entitled, "Healing the Heart," looking at all the positive emotions that can emanate from the heart, provided we listen to its voice. Finally, we will focus on "Living in Love," from self-love, to love of family, and finally expanding our love into the world.

Centering Thought for Today:

"I am ready to view my life through the eyes of love."

Listen to your heart. Take care of you. Relax.
Three repeated messages given to me over and over the past few months from a very small select group of people, both trained and just gifted, that showed up to guide me. And let me share that I was confronted by what this meant because my first attempts were thwarted. What I thought the translation meant is not what they meant at all.

Do you know what it means to relax? Really relax? Not just take time out, or a day off, or time away. In the middle of your life to stop and relax. To do nothing. Literally nothing. Having shared this recently with a few friends they have all had similar experiences in which life pulled them to be still, relax, take it easy. We are a society built on distractions, keeping busy, constant stimulation.

How can you listen to your heart through all the noise. And once you start listening first your experience is awareness of it's beating. Then it becomes more, it becomes a rhythm. Then it becomes the guide. And lastly the voice.

Did you know the heart has a brain? That it actually controls more of your body that your own brain does? Do you make choices and respond to life with your head or your heart? Can you make the shift? What does that look like, feel like? May these three weeks uncover that for you!


Take care of you. This one is the center point because it's true without this you have nothing to give.
You must be the love you want to express in the world.

These three themes seem related to these three weeks focuses.
I'm excited to explore more into the deep.

"The purpose of meditation is to stop thinking for a time, wait for the fog of thought to thin, and glimpse the spirit within." - Deepak Chopra

The day before... 21 day Mediation Challenge

.... the day before anything ultimately elicits excitement, anticipation, restlessness, sleeplessness, and preparedness too. All depends on what the day before is anticipating - a trip to somewhere, a exam or test, seeing someone you've missed dearly.

Today for me there is no one word that is intense enough for me to compare to so I will say that I have a nice blend of all these emotions for I am taking this mediation challenge with the greatest of intentions.

Meditation has been a beckoning and a necessity for me over the past few months. My naturopath pretty much insisted I start practicing Mindful Mediations this year to help calm my irregular beating heart after an unexpected life transition. He also reminded me that it was "grace not effort that heals one over time." I have done guided, visualization, and affirmation type mediations yet the practice of mindful mediation is just to follow the breath and quiet the mind... and well is a little more mindful. It's been a new experience and was complimented by my readings of a book sent to m by Pema Chodron, a buddhist monk, in her book When Things Fall Apart, Heart Advice for Difficult Times.

One thing I've yet to practice as part of my mediation is the art of discipline. A key ingredient to a workable mediation recipe. Discipline in life symbolizes a sense of "growing up" with self and with patterns that are no longer serving you. In a way to be disciplined turns into being principled.

In When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron understands sila/discipline to be a "process that supports us in going against the grain of our painful habitual patterns."

She notes that:
Discipline provides the support to slow down enough and be present enough so that we can live our lives without making a big mess. It provides the encouragement to step further into groundlessness.

I've been on groundlessness for months, first initially without my own will and now completely with intent. Because it's our desire to move away from the feeling of groundlessness that ultimately has us move away from that which is to become our greatest teacher. And she has taught me, oh has she taught me. She has taught how to love again, fully! In the face of anything. And isn't that what true love is ... not love on solid ground, love on groundlessness. Or maybe a combination of both.

My intention for my 21 day practice is discipline. And with this discipline to take the practice to a new level... to not just to DO meditation to shift it to a way of BEING - being in the present.

Come join me and thousands of others on the challenge.
Love to hear what you're intentions are...
21 Day Mediation Challenge begin Monday, July 16th 2012
http://www.chopracentermeditation.com/

Pema Chodron
http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/bookstore1.php

@CoachCassy